The invention here proposed consists of a machine for learning the bodily position and motions which a golf player must carry out in hitting the ball, also known as the player""s swing, an important stroke among those used in the game of golf.
The machine belongs to the field of training machines for diverse activities which foster a correct bodily position and the following guidance for the player""s motions.
To this end the machine includes a set of exchangeable templates and articulated arms which acting together with the corresponding means of attachment to the player""s hips and shoulders forces the correct motion for this stroke.
Training machines for a wide range of activities, studies and even professions are well known to the general domain, and may be classified into simulators and true repetitive learning machines.
This type of machine foster learning particularly for movements which are not altogether natural, such as a golf swing, since the player must carry out several turns which are independent but must be co-ordinated, and are unusual and hard to remember both by the muscles or mind of the player, so that it is necessary to repeat this motion over and over in order to learn it.
Due to the popularity of the game of golf there exist a great deal of documentation, studies and analyses of how to perform the game""s most characteristic and fundamental stroke, as well as the most difficult one, the swing.
In short, one must consider two main planes, the hip and the shoulder planes, and the angles for their positioning, both with respect to each other and to the ground, as well as defining their relative motions, analysed both individually and jointly and in co-ordination. One must also consider the height above the ground for each of these, which is given by the height of the player""s hips and shoulders.
The applicant is not aware of any machines for teaching the golf swing, that is, to make the player, or student, adopt a correct position and perform the movements of the entire body or part of it until these are performed correctly by repetition.
The invention object of the present memory related to a machine for learning the bodily position and motions known as a swing in the game of golf, from among the training machines for diverse activities, which in first place is given by a correct posture, which depends on the player""s height, more specifically on the distance from the hips to the ground and from the shoulders to the hips, and also by the motions which these must carry out.
Since the first thing which the machine most achieve is to position the players correctly and to hold them so that the correct motions are performed, holding structure or means of attaching or connecting are provided, specifically a type of belt to hold the hip and a sort of shoulder bar to hold the shoulders, with these attachments in turn articulated to the corresponding guide arms as will be described below.
To obtain the correct posture, knee angle and back position, means are required so that both the hip belt and the shoulder bar are placed at the correct height, so that the player can perform this either manually, by operating levers, or automatically, by entering the data in a computer.
These means consist of a solid support column which at the areas which correspond to the positions of the belt and shoulder bar is provided with respective cogged areas engaged by a worm gear driven by a motor or a crank handle.
The turning motions which the player must perform in the swing, both of the hips and the shoulders, are preset by those carried out by arms which are connected to both the belt and the shoulder bar, which originate either in a mechanical or automatic manner.
In any event the means which originate these motions are installed in corresponding metal plates both placed horizontally and connected to the column where the height regulation means mentioned above are located.
These emotions to be carried out are statistically selected from those typically performed by the top 20 players in the world, or those which a given player or teacher carries out, so that the player can always select the movement to carry out.
For the mechanical operation the plates are provided with guides and are interchangeable, so that each plate has a guide system corresponding to the pre-defined movements which are desired.
For the automatic operation the motions are stored in a memory and use is considered of several pantographs placed on several places on the arm and a flat plate with no type of guide.
In order to perform the movement which the arms must be given in the mechanical embodiment, two templates are projected, one for the arms of the belt and one for the shoulder bar arms, which are provided with orifices where wheels or casters are housed which are connected to the arms both at the top and at the bottom. These orifices, actually paths for displacement of the arms, are to be made in each support plate of the arms.
Since motion both of the hips and shoulder must be related, it is necessary to provide means which do so. The first tests used rods connecting the joints of the arms which moved in the template, both in the upper and lower one, with optimal results regarding their operation, but with the inconvenient of being heavy and strenuous to operate, as well as noisy.
Moreover, it was intended to motorise the unit, so that this motorisation was chosen as the means of co-ordinating the motion, with excellent results.
A positive drive means in the form of magnetic actuators were chosen, which consist of an electric coil with a ferromagnetic element in its core, so that as the coil is excited with passing current the core is displaced in one direction or another depending on the polarity of the electrical current, providing a solution which is easily controlled and co-ordinated by means of a suitable computer program.
These electric elements known as linear magnetic actuators are articulated by an articulated coupling to each template and their free end to the casters, so that the force used to perform the motion will be the sum of the force exerted by the player and that exerted by the magnetic actuators, which may be adjusted from 0 to a maximum force at will by the player.
The belt and shoulder arms are to be provided with a telescoping or lengthening mechanism so that the belt can swivel with respect to the horizontal axis.
Regarding its automatic operation, at each point of the arms where specific movements must be performed is placed a pantograph, of the type well known and commonly used, to which motion is applied both horizontally and vertically by means of corresponding stepping motors. These motors have been chosen due to their precision in turning, and their simple control by means of a computer where the game of as many players as desired can be stored, a memory which can in the future be increased, and easily selected.
In both possible embodiments each arm is given motion both on its free end as in its paracentral area; in the mechanical embodiment the motion is applied on the casters placed on the arm and in the automatic one on the arm itself.
Certain players may prefer at times not to practice the hip and shoulder motions simultaneously, so that machines are projected with only the hip belt and its mechanisms, or the shoulder bar and its mechanisms, but always maintaining the mechanisms and arrangements described above.